Yemeni mouse-tailed bat

The Yemeni mouse-tailed bat, Rhinopoma hadramauticum, is an endangered bat found only in Yemen and known from a single roost. Until 2001 it was believed that only the lesser mouse-tailed bat lived in Yemen, and then bats of the Hadramaut province were reported as the small mouse-tailed bat. A 2007 analysis of mitochondrial DNA found a genetic gap of 8 to 9 percent between the Yemeni bats and Iranian small mouse-tailed bats, and the two lineages are estimated to have diverged ten million years ago, so the Yemeni population was described as a new species in 2009. It is a medium-sized bat for its genus, with grey to greyish-brown fur and a yellowish-brown collar around the neck, a forearm of 52 to 55.7 millimetres and a tail of 54 to 62 millimetres. The only known colony lived in a new, uninhabited house in the village of Ash Shahar at an elevation of 65 metres, in arid, semi-desert country, and the population is estimated at 150 individuals.